*IRAQ: latest news and developments

[Barking_Mad]

Robo-Soldiers - or something.

More U.S. war wounded duty-bound again

WASHINGTON - After an anti-tank mine destroyed his foot and part of his leg in Iraq, Capt. David Rozelle, 31, considered his future. In another era, the commander of a cavalry troop would have been heralded for his bravery and likely issued a medical retirement. But Rozelle experienced a different message while at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Nearly every officer who visited his room cheered on a comeback. The Texas native spent the next nine months swimming, weightlifting, mountain biking and getting used to running with an artificial leg. He passed the necessary physical fitness tests given by the Army medical board and was declared fit for duty. Next year, Rozelle is slated to deploy to Iraq as the commander of a 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment headquarters troop.

"I see so many young men that say, 'Hell, yeah, I want to continue to serve and fight,' " Rozelle said.

In a shift in military culture, the U.S. armed forces have recently announced new efforts to keep seriously wounded or disabled soldiers on active duty. Although there is no clear written policy, the sentiment is being echoed down from the White House. "When we're talking about forced discharge, we're talking about another age and another" military, President Bush told wounded soldiers at Walter Reed last year. "This is a new age, and this is a new (military)." Military commanders cite advances in medical technology as the main reason for the shift. Better prosthetics - such as Rozelle's $7,000 leg - are allowing some of the wounded to regain their fitness and continue to serve. Others say the military's new attitude toward the disabled is simply mirroring society's. But one observer says the change is also practical. In an era of constant deployment, the Pentagon needs a more flexible and diversified workforce, said Laura Miller, a military sociologist with Rand Corp.

"Part of this is a response to the stress on the all-volunteer forces due to the war on terror," Miller said. "And part of it is adapting to future warfare: smaller expeditionary forces that can respond to a variety of missions, including peacekeeping and humanitarian. Why throw away someone with years of training and expertise, only to re-train someone new?"

 

[Barking_Mad]

US army fears more violence as rebels sneak back into Fallujah

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - US Marines keeping a tenuous peace in the battered Iraqi city of Fallujah say they expect an explosion of violence as rebels hiding among returning refugees renew their deadly campaign of bombings and ambushes. They also fear the insurgency will find increasing support from Fallujah residents who return to find their homes and businesses devastated by last month's massive US-led assault on the Sunni Muslim enclave.

"Our assessment is the die-hard guys have gone to ground and are just waiting for the refugees to return so that they can blend in, come back and start their IED (improvised explosive device) campaign," said Captain Tom Tennant of the 1st Batallion, 3rd Marines, who have dug into northeast Fallujah. Heavy fighting has devastated much of the city, leaving block after block of torched shopfronts and bullet-scarred homes that continue to come under heavy fire from US marines searching for lingering rebels. Most of Fallujah's 300,000 residents fled the city in the weeks before the assault, and though the military has said no date has been set for their return, marines are already braced for the flood of people.

"Right now it's hard enough, but when you inject a bunch of civilians into this city it's going to be that much harder," Tennant said, warning of a campaign of daily bombings. "These guys are just going to filter back in. They know what they're doing, when things change, and they're just going to wait until we're at our weakest point and hit us again," said another marine after an evening patrol of the neighborhood around the marine's compound. Senior military officials acknowledge that insurgents have found refuge among Fallujah's displaced residents. But they say people are only going to be allowed to return in controlled numbers, and the Iraqi government is going to register each person with ID cards in order to weed out rebels.

They also say they are confident Fallujah's residents will cooperate with US and Iraqi forces and turn suspected rebels in. "The people of Fallujah don't want them coming back. We hope they'll identify these bad people when they try to sneak back in with them," marine Major Jim West told a press conference last week. But some marines in the city say politics are pushing some officers to make dangerously optimistic assessments of the situation in Fallujah. Insurgents are likely to find allies among Fallujah's residents, some of whom are at best indifferent to the US presence, they say.

And the damage caused by the fighting and continuing security operations in the city -- marines are daily blasting homes with gunfire before storming them as they search for weapons and rebels who still ambush them from abandoned buildings -- has likely turned others against US and Iraqi forces. "The hardest part of the this is you have fence-sitters, a lot of them support the insurgents and a lot of them aren't going to be too happy when they see what's happened to their homes," Tennant said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Jesus, talk about shit for brains.........

Rumsfeld admits the US underestimated rebels

.......Rumsfeld said in a television interview that intelligence had failed to predict the strength of the insurgency in Iraq. "If you're asking, 'Was there any kind of understanding or agreement that there would likely be a long insurgency afterwards?', I don't believe ... if you dropped a thumbline through all that intelligence, that anyone would say that," Rumsfeld told Fox TV.

Putin says Iraq terrorist "incubator" posing threat to world

Russian President Vladimir Putin has described Iraq as a terrorist "incubator" that poses a threat to the world in an interview published in India where he is visiting. "As had been the case with Afghanistan, Iraq turned into a major hotbed of terrorist threat, a firing ground and 'incubator' for militants," the Russian leader, who is on a three-day visit to India, told The Hindu newspaper. "It is here (Iraq) and now that thousands of future terrorists are being recruited by terrorist networks. Those forces, most probably, can be employed in other regions of the world," he said.

Zarqawi group claims Baghdad attacks: website

An Islamist website carried a statement in which the Al-Qaeda linked group of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the double attacks in the Iraqi capital that killed at least 26 people. "The lions of the Al-Qaeda Group of Jihad in the Country of Two Rivers struck the lairs of the apostates who cheaply sold off their religion and honour," it said Friday, in a statement whose authenticity was impossible to verify. It referred to attacks on police in Al-Adhamiyah district of the capital and the Al-Saydiyah post in the Al-Amel area that medics and interior ministry officials in Baghdad said killed at least 26 people.

Ukraine's parliament demands troops withdrawal from Iraq

Ukraine's parliament approved a proposal Friday demanding troops withdrawal from Iraq, the Interfax news agency reported. A total of 257 members in the 450-seat chamber approved the proposal urging pullout of the 1,600 troops from Iraq, which was the fourth largest contingent in the US-led coalition. Both of the contestants for the presidency, pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and West-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, favor a troops pullout.

Gunmen shoot 2 councilmen in central Iraq

Two municipal councilmen from a town north of Baghdad were ambushed and killed by gunmen Friday while on their way to a conference on the upcoming elections, officials said.

 

[Barking_Mad]

updates.....

Sporadic clashes erupt in Fallujah
Sporadic clashes between insurgents and US-Iraqi forces erupted in and around the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah on Friday. Columns of smoke were seen rising above Jolan and Shuhadaa districts inside the city.

Three Arrested in Germany for Plot on Allawi
German authorities arrested three Iraqis on suspicion that they planned an attack on Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi while he was visiting Germany on Friday, the country's chief prosecutor said.

Simultaneous Iraq Attacks Leave at Least 20 Dead
Iraqi insurgents staged nearly simultaneous attacks Friday morning on police stations at opposite ends of Baghdad, killing at least 20 people, freeing dozens of prisoners and emptying a police arsenal

New clashes roil northern Iraqi city of Mosul
U-S forces say they chased down militants who shot mortar rounds into a U-S base. A military spokesman says Iraqi forces eventually cleared a mosque where the militants had taken cover, finding scores of weapons there

Shiite mosque attacked in Baghdad
Four suicide bombers detonated a minibus near a Shiite mosque located in a largely Sunni neighborhood, CNN reported. Casualty reports varied widely in the aftermath of the blast, though seven deaths were quickly confirmed.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Group to charge US with war crimes

A US advocacy group is preparing to launch a war crimes case in Germany against senior US administration officials for their alleged role in the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

"German law in this area is leading the world," Peter Weiss, vice-president of the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on Tuesday. CCR says German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living. The case, which will be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office, will charge Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA chief George Tenet and eight other officials.

According to Jen Nessel, head of communications and publications at CCR, the group is to present details of its case at several news conferences starting at 1700 GMT on Tuesday.

 

[Barking_Mad]

..............

U.S. Commander: More GIs Needed in Iraq
The United States will boost its forces in Iraq to a record number of 150,000 in coming weeks because inexperienced Iraqi troops cannot ensure security for next month's national elections, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Saturday.

Two multinational force soldiers killed in Iraq-Jordan border bombing
Two multinational force soldiers were killed and five wounded in a car bombing at the Trebil border crossing between Jordan and Iraq on Friday night, the US military revealed.

Roadside Blast Kills U.S. Soldier in Iraq
A roadside bomb killed a U.S. soldier and wounded five others in Baghdad on Saturday, the U.S. military said. A roadside blast killed another U.S. soldier near the northern town of Baquba on Saturday.

National Guard hiring recruiters to stem thinning ranks
In fiscal 2004, the Guard had expected 7,100 soldiers to sign up after active duty tours. Instead, only 2,900 did -- not even half. As a result, what's supposed to be a 350,000-member organization had just 342,918 soldiers

Mosul police repel coordinated insurgent attacks
Police stations in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul came under coordinated attack by insurgents, but were successfully repelled by Iraqi police, the US military revealed.

 

[Raisin D'etre]

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/20669/

Searing interview with unembedded reporter Dahr Jamail

We rarely see any substantial imagery coming out of Iraq in the US corporate media. What does Iraq look like now? What aren't the people in the United States seeing, and what do you feel they should be seeing?

The devastation. The massive suffering and devastation of the people and their country. Baghdad remains in shambles 19 months into this illegal occupation. Bombed buildings sit as insulting reminders of unbroken promises of reconstruction.

Bullet ridden mosques with blood stained carpets inside where worshippers, unarmed, have been slaughtered by soldiers.

Entire families living on the street. 70% unemployment with no hope of this changing. Chaotic, clogged streets of Baghdad and 5 mile long petrol lines in this oil rich country.

Engineers and doctors, unemployed, driving their cars as a taxi to try to feed their families.

The seething anger in the eyes of people on the streets as US patrols rumble past.

Iraqis now cheering when another US patrol or base is attacked. Dancing on the burning US military hardware.

Dead and maimed US soldiers. The wounded screaming and writhing in agony. Their shattered families.

The mass graves of innocent Fallujans after the utter destruction of their city.

Children deformed by Depleted Uranium exposure lying in shattered hospitals, suffering from lack of treatment, or even pain medications.

Dead, rotting bodies in the streets of Fallujah of women and children being eaten by dogs and cats because the military did not allow relief teams into the city for nearly two weeks.

We've read substantive reports recently that over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed since the war began. What is your take on this report, and what have you seen that either supports or contradicts it? Is the US military indiscriminately targeting civilians, or are they just hopelessly inept, or is it something in-between?

I think this report has understated the death toll. From what I've seen during my six months here, it is increasingly difficult to find a family here who has not had at least one member killed by either the military or criminal activity. Entire neighborhoods in Fallujah have been bombed into rubble. Houses with entire families have been incinerated and blown to pieces.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Armed insurgents patrollign the streets just 3 blocks from the 'Green Zone'...

Insurgents Step Up Attacks in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops fought a gunbattle with insurgents along a busy street in Baghdad on Monday, sending passers-by scurrying for cover, witnesses said, while five U.S. troops were reported killed in separate clashes in a volatile western province as insurgents step up attacks ahead of next month's elections. The violence came a day after gunmen ambushed a bus carrying unarmed Iraqis to work at a U.S. ammo dump near Tikrit, killing 17 and raising the death toll from three days of intensified insurgent attacks to at least 70 Iraqis.
The attacks, focused in Baghdad and several cities to the north, appeared to be aimed at scaring off those who cooperate with the American military — whether police, national guardsmen, or ordinary people just looking for a paycheck.

They also have targeted Kurdish militiamen and Shiite worshippers in a possible bid to foment sectarian and ethnic unrest. The latest fighting in Baghdad broke out after armed rebels appeared on the busy Haifa Street, saying they were hunting for Iraqis collaborating with U.S.-led forces. Witnesses said they shot and killed a man they claimed was working for the Americans. Rebels also were seen on a square just three blocks from the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses Iraq interim government and the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. military had no immediate comment, but witnesses said U.S. troops supported by armored vehicles attacked the gunmen. Haifa Street, a thoroughfare running through central Baghdad, has been the scene of frequent clashes between U.S. troops and resistance fighters. Earlier Monday, three insurgents were killed and four wounded in clashes with U.S. forces in Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad in the volatile Anbar province, according to Dr. Bassem Izaldeen, of Haditha Hospital. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force also released a statement saying three soldiers attached to the Marines died in two incidents Sunday in the western province, which includes the battleground cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. Earlier, the military said two Marines had been killed in action in Anbar on Friday.

The killings raised the number of U.S. troops killed since Friday to 11 and brought to at least 1,276 the number of U.S. troops to have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The attacks came just weeks after the United States launched major offensives aimed at suppressing guerrillas ahead of crucial elections set for Jan. 30. But the insurgents have struck hard in recent days, showing they are just as capable as ever despite the American-led campaign. Sunday's bloodshed began when gunmen opened fire at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces at a weapons dump in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, said Capt. Bill Coppernoll, spokesman for the Tikrit-based U.S. 1st Infantry Division. Coppernoll said 17 people died and 13 wounded in the attack.

Survivors said about seven guerrillas were involved, emptying their clips into the bus before fleeing. The bodies of the victims were brought to a morgue too small to hold them all; some were left in the street.


About an hour later, a suicide car bomber drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Beiji, 75 miles to the north, detonating his explosives-packed vehicle, Coppernoll said. Gunmen then opened fire on the position. Three guardsmen, including a company commander, were killed and 18 wounded, Coppernoll said. Also Sunday, guerrillas ambushed a joint Iraqi-coalition patrol in Latifiyah, south of Baghdad, and attacked Iraqi National Guardsmen patrolling near Samarra, north of Baghdad. Two Iraqis were killed and 10 wounded.

The attacks followed assaults Friday and Saturday that saw insurgents hit a police station, killing 16 men, car bomb a Shiite mosque, killing 14, and car bomb a bus carrying Kurdish militiamen, killing at least seven. The military said Monday that U.S. soldiers have detained 14 Iraqis suspected of making car bombs and leading insurgent cells in northern Iraq.

........

Also Monday, insurgents blew up part of a domestic oil pipeline south of Samarra, in northern Iraq, sending flames and black smoke billowing into the sky, Col. Mahmoud Ahmed said. Insurgents bent on derailing Iraqi reconstruction efforts regularly attack the country's oil infrastructure.

 

[Barking_Mad]

from the other day.

17 killed, 13 wounded in Tikrit bus attack

Gunmen ambushed a bus full of Iraqis working for the U.S. military, killing 17 civilians and wounding 13 in Tikrit on Sunday, while a car bomb and a gun attack killed four members of the Iraqi security forces elsewhere in northern Iraq. The violence was the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting Iraqi forces and others allied with the U.S. military that have killed at least 68 Iraqis since Friday. The surge in bloodshed has come despite major U.S. offensives last month to suppress guerrillas ahead of elections set for Jan. 30.

The gunmen opened fire from two cars at the bus as it dropped off Iraqis employed by coalition forces in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, said Capt. Bill Coppernoll, spokesman for the Tikrit-based U.S. 1st Infantry Division.Coppernoll said 17 people died and 13 were wounded in the attack, which occurred at about 8:30 a.m. Survivors reported that the gunmen emptied their clips with a spray of gunfire into the bus, then fled, Coppernoll said. The survivors said about seven guerrillas were involved in the attack.

About an hour later, a suicide car bombers drove into an Iraqi National Guard checkpoint in Beiji, about 75 miles to the north, detonating his explosives-packed vehicle, Coppernoll said. Then gunmen opened fire on the position. Three guardsmen were killed and 18 wounded, Coppernoll said. Guerrillas also attacked patrolling guardsmen near Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, early Sunday, killing one and wounding four.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Red Crescent suspends Falluja work

As part of an agreement with coalition forces, the only humanitarian organization in Falluja said Sunday it will temporarily suspend its operations there. The Iraqi Red Crescent (IRC), which has worked with Marines to distribute food, water and medical supplies to citizens remaining in Falluja, is suspending its work for two days because of security searches to be conducted in the same area where the organization set up its headquarters, said Anas Akram Mohammad, director of the group's disaster management unit. When the organization set up about a week ago, it did so in a neighborhood that was not entirely secured and without coordinating with coalition forces, said Lt. Col. Michael Ramos, commander of the 1st Battalion, 3rd Regiment.

On Friday, an intense firefight raged for hours about 300 meters (1,000 feet) from that headquarters. One insurgent was killed and two others were later detained and identified by Iraqi forces involved in the firefight, Ramos said. Other cell members are suspected to be in the area.Both coalition forces and the IRC agreed to suspend the organization's activities while security operations in northeast Falluja continue, Ramos said.

Only about 100 families are thought to remain in Falluja, as most fled the city before the U.S.-led operation aimed at flushing out insurgents. Mohammad said Sunday that over the past three days, the IRC had delivered a week's supply of food, water and medical supplies to all the families it could identify in that region of the city. Marines and Iraqi forces will continue coordination and distribution during the suspension, Ramos said.

Rebuilding Fallujah a big task for Iraqi leaders

According to Iraq’s government, people like Ismail Ibrahim should be glad Fallujah is all but rid of the insurgents accused of turning the city into a terrorist base and using its civilians as human shields. But in a Baghdad school where Ibrahim and about 200 displaced Fallujans have been living since the latest fighting drove them out, the talk is of vendetta - not against the insurgents but against the Americans and the Iraqi government.

“I feel hatred. I hurt. This is my city and it has been destroyed,” Ibrahim said, sitting on a thin mattress on the floor of a room he shares with his wife, seven children and another family. “The people of Fallujah are people of revenge. If they don’t get their revenge now, they will next year or even after 50 years. But they will get it.”

It probably is too early to tell whether this is simply bravado or whether people returning to Fallujah will retaliate against American and Iraqi forces. Without expressing sympathy for the Americans or the government, there are Fallujans who take a different view in private, saying they blame the insurgents for turning their city into a battleground. If the government can capitalize on that latter sentiment, rebuild Fallujah quickly and compensate the civilian victims, the anger may be assuaged, some Fallujans say.

Baghdad worse than ever: Hill

ROBERT Hill has learnt first-hand the new perils involved in visiting strife-torn Baghdad. Such has been the escalation of violence in the run-up to the January 30 elections that for the first time in four visits, Australia's Defence Minister could not make it to the centre of the Iraqi capital last Friday.

So dangerous has the main highway to and from the airport become, with daily suicide bombings, Senator Hill did not visit the Australian embassy or the Green Zone that comprises the headquarters of the US-led coalition forces in Iraq. "This is the first time I've been unable to do that. It's very dangerous - a number of countries are no longer travelling along it," Senator Hill told The Australian yesterday.

"I would have (travelled into central Baghdad) if we'd had a helicopter, but they were being used for more important tasks." Senator Hill's visit coincided with a surge of violence in Iraq that killed more than 60 people over the weekend and led senior UN official Lakhdar Brahimi to warn that holding elections would be "impossible" in the current security environment. Senator Hill acknowledged Iraq's central area, including Baghdad, was going through a "very difficult phase".

"I would say it's more violent than on any of my previous visits," he said.

"It's a more dangerous place than it's been since the downfall of Saddam (Hussein's) regime. The insurgency is really quite intensive and extensive." Instead of making the hazardous run into the city, Senator Hill travelled in an armoured convoy to the US-run Camp Victory, a short distance from Baghdad airport.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Observation balloons fly high in Iraq

A US military observation balloon flies over Baghdad Friday Dec. 3 2004. Observation balloons, whose US military debut dates back to the American Civil War almost 150 years ago, are now making a comeback amid the high-tech U.S. military gagged in Iraq. The unmanned craft - which look like smaller versions of the Goodyear blimp - monitor battle zones and other danger spots. They're also used to detect possible ambushes on roads used by multinational forces. On a recent evening in Baghdad, three balloons floated over the Green Zone that houses Iraq's interim government, as well as the U.S. and other foreign missions in central Baghdad.

They have also been seen circling dangerous highways leading to Baghdad International Airport, where car-bomb attacks against U.S. troops have become a daily occurrence. And during last month's U.S.-led offensive against the rebel-held city of Fallujah, a balloon hovered constantly over the battlefield. "They are on a tether and can be relatively easily moved to any area required," U.S. military spokesman Maj. Jay Antonelli said.

While the gleaming white balloons are hard to ignore, Antonelli was reluctant to discuss all they can do. "I cannot disclose their capabilities for force protection reasons," he said.The balloons' payload typically consist of an array of high-tech sensors, including a video camera with a zoom lens, a thermal imager or a laser range finder, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. The devices mainly look for muzzle flashes from small arms or mortars or try to spot suspicious movements by potential attackers.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Catch-22 anyone? 50 missions then you can go home.....55 missions then you can go home.

US troops sue over tours in Iraq

Several US soldiers are going to the courts in an effort to stop the US army extending their tours of duty in Iraq. With US forces stretched by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, many units have been ordered to stay on longer than originally expected. Soldiers have been kept abroad even if the date they were due to leave the army has passed. A lawsuit challenging the policy is expected to be filed on Monday in a federal court in Washington.

Lawyers for the men have teamed up with the Center for Constitutional Rights, a liberal public interest group, to launch a class action lawsuit calling for an end to the practice known as "stop-loss". This way, the units deploy together, train together, fight together and come home together The plaintiffs say thousands of service personnel have been kept in Iraq and Afghanistan beyond their discharge or retirement date.

Last week the Pentagon announced that several units would have their tours in Iraq extended to cover the elections due in January. One of the men involved in the lawsuit, Arkansas National Guardsman David Qualls, told the New York Times: "My job was to go over and perform my duties under the contract I signed.

"But my year is up and it's been up. Now I believe that they should honour their end of the contract." Fear of retribution. The newspaper says there are eight plaintiffs, but that Mr Qualls is the only one willing to reveal his name. The others are reportedly referred to in the lawsuit as "John Doe" numbers one to seven.

They apparently fear retribution if they reveal themselves, including more dangerous postings in Iraq. They include a military bandsman, ordered to Iraq to play music. The army says its stop-loss policy is vital to ensure its forces on the ground are familiar with their environment. "If someone next to you is new, it can be dangerous," army spokeswoman Lt Col Pamela Hart told the New York Times. "The bottom line of this is unit cohesion. This way, the units deploy together, train together, fight together and come home together."

 

[Raisin D'etre]

"The Futile and Criminal Obliteration of Fallujah: American soldiers fighting in Depleted Uranium battlefields are called "Throw-Away Soldiers".
By Christopher Bollyn,
Dec 4, 2004, 12:23

"Having seen what appeared to be a depleted uranium (DU) missile fired at a building in Fallujah on CNN during the first week of the fighting, AFP asked the Pentagon if DU weapons are being used in Fallujah. 'Yes', Yoswa said, 'DU is a standard round on the M-1 Abrams tank'. Because U.S. marines in Fallujah are very close to the poison gas produced by exploded DU shells, AFP asked Yoswa if anything was being done to protect the troops from DU poisoning. Yoswa seemed unaware of the dangers posed by the use of DU."

"Marion Fulk, a retired nuclear scientist from Livermore National Lab told AFP that U.S. troops in DU contaminated battlefields are considered "throw-away soldiers." The Marines exposed to DU in Fallujah, and elsewhere, face greatly increased risks of cancer, deformed children, and other health problems in the future."

As harsh as this statement by Marion Fulk seems at first glance, this charge is exactly the term a retired Army Major used in March, 2003, during a phone call to me in describing the attitude the Pentagon had developed toward soldiers in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Remember, in February, 2004, the Pentagon did something it had never done; it replaced an entire army with an entirely fresh army. Why did it do this? The best guess is that Pentagon officers knew that enough men in the original invading force were getting sick from D.U. poisoning that an entirely fresh infusion of forces was required. Now, this fresh army has been in the battlefield for nine months, and is in dire need of being replaced, for the very same reasons.


http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_14194.shtml

 

[Barking_Mad]

Just a quick comparison to see the number of US dead and injured in part of this year compared to part of last year.

US Injured

March 03 - Nov 03 = 2,147
March 04 - Nov 04 = 6,815

US dead

March 03 - Nov 03 = 482
March 04 - Nov 04 = 775

 

[Vash]

Shouldn't that be march 04 - november 04?

 

[Barking_Mad]

Yes, sorry - my mistake. Altered now

 

[Barking_Mad]

US soldier seeks political refugee status in Canada

US soldier Jeremy Hinzman is seekingpolitical refugee status in Canada after fleeing military service in Iraq to avoid a war he calls illegal, it is reported here Monday. Hinzman, 25, is appearing in front of an Immigration and Refugee Board in Toronto on Monday.

Immigration officials have ruled that whether or not the war isillegal is irrelevant in Hinzman's case. If he does not obtain refugee status, he may be deported to the United States where he would be prosecuted as a deserter. If he is granted refugee status,some critics have said it could open the door for even more US deserters to arrive in Canada. Hinzman joined the US army in 2001 and was trained as a paratrooper. By August 2002, the practicing Buddhist applied to bea conscientious objector, saying his personal beliefs prevented him from participating in war.

His application was delayed and he was sent to Afghanistan but served in a non-combat post. His application was turned down whilehe was there. But when he got his orders to ship out to Iraq in late 2003, hefled his North Carolina base and moved to Canada with his wife andyoung son. "I signed up to defend the country from all enemies, foreign and domestic, not carry out acts of aggression," Hinzman was quoted as saying earlier this year.

Marines, Sailors Deploy; One Sailor Refuses To Board

About 6,000 Marines and sailors from Expeditionary Strike Group 5 departed from the 32nd Street Naval Station San Diego Monday aboard six ships bound for the Western Pacific. One sailor assigned to one of the ships refused to board the vessel to protest the U.S. presence in Iraq.

"I just want people to see how people feel about this. It's not just a few crazy liberals talking to the media to make money. I'm not making any money, I'm going to jail for a year for this. I want to do because I feel that strongly about it and I know a lot of people feel this way," Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes told 10News.

Paredes, 23, wore a T-shirt that read: 'Like a cabinet member, I resign.' He acknowledged that the action he is planning could result in a court martial and imprisonment. "I know other people are feeling the same way I am, and I'm hoping more people will stand up," he said. "They can't throw us all in jail."

 

[Barking_Mad]

Vietnam-style river patrols root out rebels and arms along the Euphrates

THE ghosts of Vietnam drift through Iraq. Denied and dispelled by advocates of the war, they slink back in the “mission creep”, “quagmire” and “bodybag” accusations of the conflict’s critics.
On the north bank of the Euphrates on Sunday they gathered again, chattering through the rotorblade throb of two overhead Hueys; whispering through the tall rush beds dividing the paddy fields and irrigation ditches; lurking beneath the palm trees and shadows thrown by a fat orange sun; echoing the words of the young American soldier driving Bravo Company’s commander to the start line of the day’s sweep-and-search mission.

“My father was in the special forces in Vietnam,” Private Scott Carlisle, 25, said. “He did four tours there between 1969 and 1973. He was shot in the Mekong Delta, but survived, hiding beneath the body of one of his buddies after his platoon took 90 per cent casualties and the VC went through them, finishing off the survivors. “He was a great soldier,” he added, “but a lousy husband and an even worse father. He died when he was 48. He lived life hard.”

It was early morning. Private Carlisle and more than 100 other Bravo Company troops of the 44th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division — backed by Abrams tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees — were deploying on Operation Bear, a lengthy mission to search for the weapons caches of an otherwise invisible enemy. Across the oily brown, slow-moving expanse of the Euphrates sat the city of Ramadi, obscured by a line of palms and thick vegetation. A hotbed of insurgent activity, the area has taken the lives of 41 soldiers and wounded 300 more of the 5,500 men in Private Carlisle’s brigade since they deployed to Ramadi in September.

Dismounting from their vehicles, the American sappers moved forward in lines across the paddy fields, some bearing mine detectors, all laden with up to 60lb of equipment, including their M16s, grenades, 9mm pistols and ammunition. The sun climbed and the heat bore down. Of combat-age Iraqi men, there was no sign. Instead, as the American search lines converged on the few dismal farmsteads, they found only goats, chickens, women and children.

 

[Barking_Mad]

CIA Paints Pessimistic Iraq Picture

Dec 7, 2004 — NEW YORK (Reuters) - The situation in Iraq is unlikely to improve anytime soon, according to a classified cable and briefings from the Central Intelligence Agency, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. The assessments are more pessimistic than the Bush administration's portrayal of the situation to the public, government officials told the newspaper. The classified cable — sent last month by the CIA's station chief in Baghdad after the completion of a one-year tour of duty there — painted a bleak picture of Iraq's politics, economics and security and reiterated briefings by Michael Kostiw, a senior CIA official, according to the Times.

The station chief cannot be identified because he is still working undercover, the Times added. The cable, described as "unusually candid," cautioned that security in the country is likely to deteriorate unless the Iraqi government makes significant progress in asserting its authority and building up the economy, the paper said. Spokesmen for the White House and the CIA told the Times that they could not discuss intelligence matters and classified documents.

Snapshots in Aftermath of Fallujah Mission

FALLUJAH, Iraq - The mangled cables and trash that litter the power station's control room do not bother Adil Raffah. But the bespectacled chief engineer begins to shake when he sees the desk he has worked behind for 25 years, now smashed. "Only animals could do this, no Iraqi, never," he whispers, picking up a hammer left on the floor. "It must have been the Americans."

Ismail Kasim, the plant's senior adviser, tries to reassure him. "It's nothing, we can fix this in a few hours," he says. To the U.S. Marines combing Fallujah, the appearance of these two men is a positive sign: Perhaps they can play a small role in getting the shattered city up and running again. Kasim is said to know the power grid in this part of Anbar province, which includes Fallujah, better than anyone. But the two Iraqis may not be so willing to play the part.

"I'm doing my job for my country and my family, not for the Americans," Kasim says. What hurts most, he adds, is that he still cannot go back into the city. "I don't know what happened to my home," he says. Kasim and Raffah are just two of the thousands of people who will begin trickling back into this devastated city after a massive U.S.-led invasion, when at least 1,200 insurgents were killed and more than 1,000 suspects were captured. More than 50 Marines and eight Iraqis were killed.

Three weeks later, Marines are still edgy - facing sporadic pockets of resistance and being highly suspicious of the few Fallujans who stayed behind. Although the city has fallen, Marines daily fight scattered groups of rebels as they clear the city of weapons caches, more than 400 of which have been found. At the same time, military engineers are racing to start reconstruction of the devastated city before the estimated 250,000 people who fled are allowed to return. The work needs to be well under way by the end of January, when the country plans to hold national elections, if polling stations are to open. Marine officers and Baghdad officials say they want all Fallujah's citizens to be able to return home to vote.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Danish soldiers accused of torture

Danish soldiers were accused of hitting, kicking and torturing Iraqi prisoners with electro shock in the paper Al-Manarah, one of the two large papers in Iraq. The Danish military command center, Hærens Operative Kommando, relayed this information to the Danish paper Politiken and at the same time rebutted the accusations. It has not been identified any attacks on prisoners during the operation,» said Brig. Gen. John Dalby, head of the Danish contingent in Iraq, to the Danish paper.

According to sources Al-Manarah have been in contact with, the assaults took place during a military operation November 35, in the town of Az-Zubayr, ten kilometres south west of Basra in southern Iraq. According to Dalby, the Iraqi security forces made 37 arrests in connection with house searchers. Large amounts of weapons and hashish were confiscated. More than 1000 Danish, British, and Iraqi soldiers participated in the action.

 

[Barking_Mad]

Apologies to the mods for posting the whole article, but its a registration site and I thought this was well worth the entire read.

Inside Falluja: An insurgent's story

BAGHDAD—In a cramped room that has become his refuge, with walls of grimy plaster and sloppy brickwork, a man known as Abu Mohammed sat with his children. It was evening in Baghdad, and the call to prayer wafted over the neighbourhood that takes its name from its main avenue: Palestine St.

As the invocation became audible, scratchy but melodic, Abu Mohammed paused for a moment in respectful silence. Soon after, the electricity returned to his shack, powering a lone fluorescent light that offset the grey of dusk. He sipped his tea and dragged again from a locally made Miami cigarette. Then, with humility and pride, 39-year-old Abu Mohammed began his story — a tale of death, life and prospective martyrdom.

Unlike so many accounts of a conflict that has reshaped Iraq, it came not from the U.S. forces prosecuting the war, but from among the ranks of the men they fought. A blacksmith turned insurgent, Abu Mohammed is on an odyssey that has taken him from the battlefields of Falluja, roiled with religion, to a harrowing escape across the Euphrates River, to a lonely exile in Baghdad, where he waits to fight another day. It began with the death of his son, Ahmed, whose short life was ended by an American bullet.

"He was only 13, but he was the equal of a thousand men," Abu Mohammed said in words that served as an epitaph. His hard face, framed in short, greying hair, softened. Almost imperceptibly, a glimmer passed over his eyes. He leaned his short, wiry body forward, hands clasped at his waist. "He had more guts than me, a hundred times more," the father said. "He was still a child, but he was a hero."

In the fervent streets of Falluja before last month's U.S.-led assault, young Ahmed was viewed as a mascot of sorts among the hundreds of men who called themselves mujahideen — guerrillas fired by faith. He was shorter than his father and more conscious of his looks. He wore his dark hair fashionably long and preferred shirts that showed off biceps built with a regimen of weights. He spent his hours at the Hadhra Muhammadiya mosque, a gathering place for fighters, where he became familiar with such insurgent leaders as Abdullah Janabi and Omar Hadid.

Abu Mohammed says Janabi gave Ahmed a bottle of fragrance — a tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, who adored musk and believed its aroma could awaken the spirit. Ahmed joined the war against U.S. troops early, becoming a fighter at 12. Residents said that, in his first operation in March, he hung out at the mayor's office for days, selling candy on the street and joking with American soldiers. Once his presence became familiar, he managed to leave a homemade bomb at the building, which detonated. Soon after, he joined his father. "I consider him a man, and I treat him as a friend," one resident recalls Abu Mohammed saying of his son.

Beginning in April, Falluja became a virtually independent fiefdom of Iraqi and foreign insurgents — a redoubt where car bombings, abductions, beheadings and attacks on the U.S. military were planned and executed. U.S. forces put pressure on the city and the insurgents, gradually increasing it until, in the first week of November, artillery attacks and air raids signalled the ground assault that would follow.

"The Americans were testing us," says Abu Mohammed.

"They wanted to see what kind of power we had."

Ahmed insisted on serving on the front line, donning a black tracksuit that an insurgent leader gave him. The boy's mother was angry, but her protests were in vain. On a clear day before the ground assault, guerrillas scurried around the narrow streets of Falluja's Shuhada neighbourhood. A barrage of artillery and air raids lasted from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m., Abu Mohammed says. There was a break, then fighting resumed at 4 p.m. Abu Mohammed sent his son to fetch ammunition from among the rocket-propelled grenades, mortar shells, rockets and AK-47 rounds he kept in a hole next to their house.

The boy ran, crouching, about 600 metres down a street lined with ochre-coloured buildings. As he did, he was struck by a bullet whose source his father did not see. It pierced the back of Ahmed's neck and tore through his chest. The boy was buried three hours later, at a cemetery next to the Farouk mosque, with four others killed that day.The mystique of martyrdom prevents Abu Mohammed from mourning the death of his son. Ahmed died, as he puts it, "in the path of God."

But now, he allows himself a moment of reflection: "He was one of my ribs."

The boy's mother has yet to learn that Ahmed is dead. She thinks he's staying with relatives.

"I cannot tell her now," Abu Mohammed says plaintively.

He thrusts his hands forward. "She's a mother. What do you think her reaction will be?"

The battle for Falluja began on Nov. 8 and, under the cover of darkness, Abu Mohammed began fighting.

Residents say he already had a reputation as a fighter. Before the war, he was a blacksmith and a day labourer, making barely enough money to support two wives and nine children, all of whom slept in one room with an adjoining kitchen. Months after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, he joined the ranks of insurgents. He says he worked as a scout, then ran weapons, then became a sniper. He carried out about 18 "operations" outside Falluja, in the arid expanse of western Iraq. Since he began fighting, he says, 30 men he knew have died.

After an operation this fall, when he fired rockets at a U.S. base in Habbaniya after sneaking past fortifications, insurgent leader Janabi nicknamed him Wawi — or Jackal. "When I shoot a target with a rocket-propelled grenade, it's like celebrating a feast," Abu Mohammed says. While atrocities unleashed by the insurgents — beheadings and bombings that have killed scores of civilians — have at least anecdotally seemed to unleash popular revulsion, there remains a constituency in Iraq that celebrates the guerrilla war.

Myths have grown up around it, all infused with religious imagery and notions of divine intervention. Residents trade stories: that the knights of the Prophet Muhammad were seen riding through Falluja's streets on horseback, with their swords drawn; that birds guided by God cast stones at Apache helicopters; that a scented breeze descends on the fighters as they battle U.S. troops. The fighting in Falluja was nothing like Abu Mohammed had seen. He recalls the battle in April, when U.S. troops first tried to take the city but brokered a truce that eventually put it in insurgents' hands. Last month's battle, he says, was far more ferocious."Last April, they had specific targets. In this attack, there was nothing specific: They attacked randomly."

Abu Mohammed says he was one of a group of 60 fighters, part of a guerrilla force whose strength he estimates at between 2,000 and 2,500. Of those, he puts a specific number on foreign fighters with them: 416, most of whom wore blue or black tracksuits. In the four days he fought, he saw nine of his colleagues killed. Throughout the fight, he says, they were well armed from ample stockpiles, but they were overmatched.

U.S. air support and shelling overwhelmed them, coming from "above, the side and in front of us. "You could hide easier from the rain than from the shelling we saw." On one night, he says, the fighters were surprised by a tank that no one heard until it was 50 metres away. Two of his men were killed before he and six others managed to retreat.

"We never heard it. In a fight, you leave your ears open, but we didn't hear anything."

He shakes his head. "What kind of tank was that?" In the propaganda that surrounds the insurgency, much of it distributed on video CDs that can be bought for 50 cents in Baghdad, the images celebrate the technological divide. Footage of blasts from a tank barrel and fire from helicopter gunships shifts seamlessly to pictures of bloodied corpses and women in black, screaming. The Americans, Abu Mohammed says, are "strong in their technology, but I've never seen cowards like them." A hint of anger flashes across his usually calm features.

"Fifteen thousand Americans against 2,000 mujahideen — with their technology and their firepower? They say they were victorious, but what kind of victory was that?

"We have a principle: defending our country. Why are they coming here? For what?"

The night of Nov. 11 marked Abu Mohammed's flight.

 

[Barking_Mad]

continued.......

Some of the insurgent leaders decided to smuggle out families still in Shuhada, the last stronghold of the fighters in the southern part of Falluja. U.S.-led forces had surrounded the city, blocking traffic in and out, leaving the meandering Euphrates River that runs along the western edge of the city as one of the few means of escape.

At every turn in the journey, time seemed to slow. With about 80 others, Abu Mohammed's family left home at 11 p.m. The walk to the river usually takes 15 minutes; with the thunder of artillery barrages, it took three hours.

They walked past corpses in the street, some mauled by dogs, to a tree-shrouded area at the river's edge. "We took nothing, not even our clothes," Abu Mohammed says. Four boats awaited them, one with a motor. Fighters ordered women and children to split up, fearful that one blast might kill everyone in a family. The command ignited chaos, as women began yelling for their children.

"You can imagine when the shell lands in the water. It's like the river is burning," Abu Mohammed says.

"I can't describe the fear. They were so scared. Only God kept the explosions away from us."

The winter is moderate in Iraq, but the water was chilly and the current was strong. The boats crossed gingerly to the far bank, taking Abu Mohammed's children, one by one. The hours passed. Worried that the sun would soon rise, Abu Mohammed took his youngest son, 3-year-old Abdel-Qadir, and began swimming. Finally, one of the boats passed; he put the boy inside and returned to the bank. At 4 a.m., the shelling became so bad that the boats did not cross again, forcing those left behind to fend for themselves. One of his wives could not swim, so Abu Mohammed waded into the water with her. She struggled, almost choking him. Time again slowed; a swim that usually took 10 minutes ended up lasting 45.Dawn had broken as he stood on the other bank, nearly a kilometre downriver. It was too dangerous to return to Falluja in daylight.

"I wanted to go back, but the sun had already risen," Abu Mohammed says, his voice tinged with regret. "I was trying to find an eye of a needle to get back to Falluja, but I couldn't find it." Now, Abu Mohammed sits in a home that friends have found for him in Baghdad. A television set and satellite dish sit on a rickety wooden stand, donated by his sister. Mattresses are tossed over straw mats and a brown carpet given to the family by friends. A bouquet of pink and yellow plastic flowers decorates one wall. The others are bare but for a Qur'an wrapped in a blue bag hanging from a nail, higher than anything else in the room.

The disparate forces that make up the insurgency in Iraq are, in many ways, united by what they lack: a political program. In its stead, among many Iraqi guerrillas at least, is a visceral nationalism more and more reflected through the lens of religion, a force that has come to mould the insurgency. Islam provides the vocabulary, the imagery and the faith in death itself as a cause.

There is little ideology beyond God, no prescription for a future government. Before the war, Abu Mohammed called himself a Saddam sympathizer. No longer. In a conversation that lasted hours, he rejected the idea of muqawima, Arabic for resistance. The word is too secular. It is a jihad, a holy struggle, and the men who fight are mujahideen, obliged by religion to fight non-Muslim occupiers.

"Until the day of judgment, there will be jihad," Abu Mohammed said, his words slow. "If something happened in Lebanon, I would find a bridge to cross and go there to fight." In a calm voice, he described his obligation as matter of fact, a self-evident truth, and he quoted the Qur'an to illustrate his point: "And slay them wherever you catch them." Even among those sympathetic to the insurgency, some have denounced the beheadings carried out by the guerrillas. Abu Mohammed makes exceptions: Foreign contractors, aid workers and journalists should not be killed. But he can think of no punishment severe enough for traitors.

He quoted Janabi, the insurgent leader: Killing a spy is the equivalent of killing 100 Americans."What is the penalty of being a spy?" Abu Mohammed asked. "I swear by the holy Qur'an that no one is beheaded unless he confesses that he did this or that." He quoted another verse, looking again at the hanging Qur'an: "Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of God and your enemies." His 3-year-old son, Abdel-Qadir, played next to him, shining a flashlight in his father's eyes. Abu Mohammed ignored him, seemingly taken by his own words.

He insisted he would return to Falluja soon. Not to avenge his son, he said, but to prosecute the fight. "I wish I could leave today," he said, shaking his head. "I will kiss your hand if you can show me the way."

 

[Barking_Mad]

US orders Iraqi Red Crescent out of Fallujah

BAGHDAD, Dec 5 (AFP) - The Iraqi Red Crescent said Sunday that it had left Fallujah on US military orders after the aid agency was told the former insurgent stronghold was not safe. "Multinational forces asked the IRC to withdraw from Fallujah for security reasons and until further notice," the organisation's spokeswoman Ferdus al-Ibadi told AFP. Ibadi, speaking in Baghdad, had said earlier that the agency left of its own free will, but she said she was only informed after the IRC left the city that it had been told to do so by US marines.

The IRC distibuted food, water and blankets to around 1,500 people in the city, whose population was around 300,000 before a massive assault by US-led forces began on November 8. "We went today to Karma and in two days' time we will visit refugees in other places around the city," said Ibadi, referring to a town about five kilometres (three miles) north of Fallujah. The US military said the IRC had requested a military escort out of the city, and that it had secured the organisation's headquarters immediately afterwards.

"All military-age males in the IRC building were properly vetted and approximately eight were detained," said US Marine Major M. Naomi Hawkins. The US military had since Thursday been interviewing military-age males who came to the IRC for food aid as well as testing them for gun powder, a potential sign of insurgent activity, an AFP correpondent said. The marines confirmed that they had cordoned off the building on Thursday when they began vetting males. There had been friction between the IRC and the US military as the agency was prevented from distributing aid throughout the city.

 

[Johnny Canuck3]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041208/D86R4BD00.html

 

[laptop]

US soldiers say 'no fair' to extended tours

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Eight American soldiers have filed a lawsuit to win their release from the United States military, saying they are being kept on duty longer than their terms of enlistment specified.
...
"What this boils down to, in my opinion, is a question of fairness," said David Qualls, who enlisted in the National Guard for a one-year term that expired in July. "You and I make a contract; we fulfil our contract or we breach our contract." [The] soldiers have been barred from leaving the military by what are called "stop-loss" orders.

Canadian Broadcastin, eh

Hmm. Conscription moves one step closer... and then the excrement impacts the ventilation, Stateside.

 

[bigfish]

A Real American Hero: One sailor protests Iraq war, refuses to board ship:

"I know other people are feeling the same way I am, and I'm hoping more people will stand up," he said. "They can't throw us all in jail."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20041206-1325-ca-iraq-sailorsprotest.html

 

[bigfish]

AWOL Soldier Says He Didn't Want To Be War Criminal

http://www.wjactv.com/news/3981703/detail.html

TORONTO -- An American seeking to become the first U.S. soldier granted refugee status in Canada after refusing to serve in Iraq told immigration officials Tuesday that the Army was drilling its soldiers to think of all Arabs and Muslims as potential terrorists.

"We were being told that it was a new kind of war, that these were evil people and they had to be dealt with," said Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, 26, who fled from Fort Bragg, N.C., on Jan. 2.

"We were told that we would be going to Iraq to jack up some terrorists," Hinzman told the Immigration and Refugee Board on the second of his three-day hearing for political asylum.

He now lives in Toronto with his 31-year-old wife, Nga Nguyen, and 2-year-old son Liam. A Fort Bragg spokeswoman said Hinzman was removed from the rolls of the 82nd Airborne Division.

He said U.S. military training since Sept. 11 is designed to "foster an attitude of hatred. It gets your blood boiling to carry out the mission."

Hinzman is arguing that the war in Iraq is illegal and fighting in it would have made him a war criminal.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US forces 'hid Iraq prison abuse'

Concerned US defence workers were told to keep quiet about the alleged abuse of Iraqi prisoners, memos obtained by a US civil rights group have revealed. Documents released by the American Civil Liberties Union also show that special forces officers ignored FBI fears over their interrogation methods. FBI and Defence Intelligence Agency concerns were ignored or brushed aside by special forces, says the ACLU. The ACLU obtained the documents under the US Freedom of Information Act.

A Pentagon spokesman said the US has a policy of "full disclosure" on allegations of abuse and the government "condemns and prohibits torture". According to the memos, detainees held in Iraq often arrived at prisons, including Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail, which was at the centre of allegations of systematic prisoner abuse, bearing "burn marks" on their backs. The documents also shed light on a tense relationship between the US military hierarchy in Iraq and intelligence agents posted to the region. Several documents detail specific concerns about the conduct of military personnel in Iraq.

One memo, from Vice Admiral Lowell E Jacoby, head of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), describes how staff who complained about abuse were threatened, had their car keys confiscated and e-mails monitored, as well as being ordered not to leave the base or speak to friends or relatives in the US. The more the government is forced to reveal, the more we learn that individuals in US custody... were tortured and abused. Task force staff did not record the medical treatment and confiscated DIA photographs of the injuries, the memo says. Both documents were dated 25 June 2004. The ACLU disclosures follow reports that a senior FBI official complained in 2002 about "highly aggressive" interrogation techniques at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay.

"These documents tell a damning story of sanctioned government abuse - a story the government has tried to hide and may well come back to haunt our own troops captured in Iraq," Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. The Pentagon has said that at least eight major reviews and dozens of congressional hearings and briefings on the abuse issue have already been completed. Seven US military police and an intelligence officer have been charged in connection with the abuse. One reservist has been jailed for his role.

.....

An e-mail to Thomas Harrington, an FBA counter-terrorism expert, details "somewhat heated" conversations with Pentagon staff, in which officials admitted that the FBI's less physical interrogation style had yielded similar results. In another e-mail, dated December 2003, the FBI notes a "longstanding" opposition to some Pentagon interrogation techniques. The sender requested that certain information "be documented to protect the FBI".

 

[Barking_Mad]

New attacks 'kill Iraq civilians'

At least three Iraqis were killed in a suicide bomb attack on a US convoy in the city of Samarra, police said. A further two Iraqis reportedly died in clashes near a US military base in the central town of Ramadi. UK Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon arrived in the southern city of Basra to meet British soldiers returning from a month-long deployment in central Iraq. Iraq's interim President has accused Iran of allowing militants to stoke unrest ahead of January polls. Ghazi Yawer told the Washington Post newspaper that Tehran was interfering in Iraq's affairs in order to achieve a pro-Iranian government in Baghdad. His remarks were echoed by Jordan's King Abdullah, who said Iran had encouraged more than one million Iranians to cross into Iraq to participate in the polls. Iran has denied the charge that is interfering in Iraq.

Violence flared in the restive Sunni Muslim city of Ramadi when a suicide bomber targeted a US military checkpoint. At least two Iraqis are said to have died in gunfire following the attack. Ramadi has seen several clashes between US forces and insurgents this month following a heavy US assault on the nearby Sunni Muslim city of Falluja. A suicide bomber attacked a US convoy in Samarra, killing three Iraqis, local police officials told Reuters news agency. Earlier, an insurgent attack on a police station in Samarra killed two people - a policeman and a nearby child, the Associated Press news agency reports. Separately, at least two US soldiers and six Iraqis were hurt in Baghdad by a roadside bomb. The explosion is said to have targeted a nearby US army convoy.

 

[Barking_Mad]

US soldiers rooting through rubbish to find scrap metal.........If no one else can help, maybe Rummy could hire 'The A-Team'?

Troops grill Rumsfeld over Iraq

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld faced a grilling when he visited troops about to face combat in Iraq. Mr Rumsfeld was at Camp Buehring, Kuwait, to deliver a pep-talk to soldiers about the significance of the task ahead of them. But he faced tough questions from soldiers anxious about their equipment and how long they will stay. Pentagon staff said troops regularly quiz senior officers, adding that it was a way of boosting morale.

One soldier said troops were forced to root through rubbish to reinforce their armoured vehicles. "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmour our vehicles?" Army Spc Thomas Wilson asked. His question brought cheers from some 2,000 fellow soldiers - mostly Reserve and National Guard troops - assembled in an aircraft hangar for the question-and-answer session that followed Mr Rumsfeld's speech.

Mr Rumsfeld paused, before asking him to repeat the question, AP news agency reported. Spc Wilson did so, adding, "we do not have proper armoured vehicles to carry with us". "You go to war with the army you have," Mr Rumsfeld replied, saying vehicle armour manufacturers were being exhorted to crank up production. Mr Rumsfeld added that vehicle armour might not provide total protection from the perils faced by soldiers in Iraq - such as roadside bombs.

"You can have all the armour in the world on a tank and it can [still] be blown up," Mr Rumsfeld said.